Halle Berry opened up about a deeply personal journey at a recent Bare It All event on June 9, her experience with menopause.
Speaking alongside Christina Aguilera on a panel dedicated to women’s health, the 58-year-old Oscar-winning actress shared how her lack of awareness about menopause led her down an unexpected path of learning, healing, and entrepreneurship.
Berry admitted she was caught off guard by the onset of menopause at age 54, saying, “I had no idea that I was in menopause at this time of my life. I was 54 years old, no doctor that I had had even mentioned the fact that I would enter into menopause.
So I had this unrealistic idea that maybe I would — okay, don’t laugh — but maybe I would just skip it.”
It wasn’t until she began experiencing symptoms, shortly after meeting her partner Van Hunt, that she realized something was changing.
“I was really afraid at that time that I would never enjoy that part of my femininity again and that I had lost that,” Berry shared. “I finally found my person and now the worst joke in the world happened to me.”
Berry said the symptom became a wake-up call—not just for her own health, but also for the gaps in awareness around women’s wellness.
“That sent me down a rabbit hole of doing my own reconnaissance and trying to figure out, well, if my doctor didn’t recognize this as a symptom of menopause and nobody ever talked to me about menopause, I can only imagine that there are other women out there, probably millions of women, that know nothing whose doctors know equally nothing,” she explained.
Through her own research, Berry connected with Colette Courtion and Dr. Sarah de la Torre of Joylux, a company focused on intimate care for women.
Their products not only helped her address her symptoms but also inspired a partnership with her wellness brand, Respin Health.
“They serviced my very first needs when I realized that I was in menopause, they helped me get my intimacy back and my sex life back,” Berry said.
“They became very near and dear to me right from the start,” she added. “And I realized through Colette and Dr. Sarah that we are like-minded and we have many ideas for many more things that we can create together that are science backed, that women actually need.”
During the conversation, Berry emphasized the importance of speaking openly about menopause and breaking the long-standing silence around it.
“It takes being bold, talking about it, being loud about it, not being afraid to talk about it, not feeling shame, giving other women permission to talk about it,” she said.
“Talking about it with our partners, talking about it with our bosses at work, with our children, deciding that we’re worth it, deciding that we have been overlooked for far too long, right?”
With passion in her voice, Berry called on women to unite and advocate for themselves.
“Get angry about it,” she said.
“If you have to get angry about it, align with life-minded women, I think that’s what we have to start doing. We can no longer be silent on this issue. It’s a health issue. It’s a human rights issue, and we need to fight for that.”
